SPIRIT ARE OJHL CHAMPIONS!

Press Release

The Stouffville Spirit are the 2012 Ontario Junior Hockey League champions following a heart-stopping 4-3 overtime victory on Friday night in Whitby.

Tyler Feaver returned to the nets for the Fury after being pulled in game five and Jon Hall took his usual spot between the pipes for the Spirit.  After the 7-1 blowout in game five, in which Whitby deceivingly outshot the Spirit, the teams played an end-to-end scoreless first period with the shots 13-10 in favour of Stouffville.  Both goaltenders made key saves for their club.

Just under two minutes into the second, Jack Lewis would open the scoring for the Fury, beating Hall for his ninth of the post-season.  Later, with the Fury shorthanded due to a too many men on the ice penalty, leading scorer Drake Caggiula notched his 17^th of the playoffs to knot the game at one and once again, both netminders came up big the rest of the way with the shot totals 20-10 for Stouffville after two.

The third period started much of the same as Matt Davis scored his 11^th of the playoffs just 41 seconds in.  Six minutes later Devin Shore added to the Fury lead and Whitby looked to be well in command of the game heading down the stretch.  As the clock ticked down, the never-say-die Spirit continued to push and with netminder Jon Hall on the bench, Alex Botten poked home his 11^th of the playoffs with just 44 seconds left on the clock.  The shocking finish continued as the Spirit took the puck deep off the draw and with 11 seconds remaining Christian Powers was the hero, sending the game to OT for the first time in the series.
Overtime would see both teams have opportunities to win the game.  Just over ten minutes into the extra frame with the puck bouncing around the slot, Tyler Feaver would make a couple of big saves, before Brandon Gaudette (photo credit - Tim Bates/OJHL Images) slipped the puck into the net off a rebound, sending the Spirit faithful into celebration. 

For a full game summary, please CLICK HERE
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Brandon Gaudette's heroics earned him first star honours in the game, while Mike Hennessey and Chris Raguseo were named the second and third star respectively.  Played in front of a record Fury crowd of 1,104 spectators, the 4-3 victory marks the first championship in Spirit franchise history and they will now represent the OJHL at the 2012 Dudley Hewitt Cup in Thunder Bay, Ontario.


 (Nathan can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)